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Andrew Campbell, a 10-time national sailing champion who represented the U.S. in the 2008 Olympics in the Laser class, was the only new member of the Oracle Team USA crew that was announced this week.

Campbell, 30, is on an America’s Cup team for the first time. He said he was thrilled to join the team.

“The talent level and experience on this crew is second to none,” he said. “This is a group of guys who have been together through some serious obstacles, and they’ve won the ultimate prize in our sport.”

Skipper Jimmy Spithill and tactician/sailing team manager Tom Slingsby announced the crew that will take part in the team’s first training camp in Sydney, Australia, this week.

“I’m excited that we’ve managed to assemble this group,” Spithill said. “Most of the guys were on board for the last America’s Cup, so they’ve been battle-tested and know what to expect.”

The team is scheduled to be on the water through March 16 in Sydney Harbor and will train at times on AC45 catamarans with Team Australia, which launched its program this week. Team Australia is the challenger of record for the 35th America’s Cup.

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Tom FitzGerald is the Stanford sports beat writer for The Chronicle. In more than three decades at The Chronicle, he has covered the 49ers and Raiders and a wide variety of other sports, including auto races. Among the many momentous games he has covered were the 49ers' victory over Dallas in the 1982 NFC Championship Game, which featured "The Catch'' by Dwight Clark, and the U.S. hockey team’s 1980 Olympic upset of the Soviet Union in Lake Placid, N.Y. At the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, he rode the bobsled run with members of the U.S. team for a first-person story. In 2012 he rode on Russell Coutts’ Oracle Team USA catamaran for another first-person story during the America's Cup World Series. In 2014 he rode with IndyCar legend Mario Andretti in a racecar at Sonoma Raceway, hitting speeds of more than 150 mph.
For 15 years he wrote a popular sports humor column called “Top of the Sixth’’ (later named Open Season). He lives in Martinez.